By HELEN ZULU –

THE Zambia Freight Forwarders Association (ZAFFA) has said the Regional Customs Transit Guarantee (RCTG) Scheme will lead to loss of business for its members.
RCTG is a scheme in which goods transiting through the Republic have to do so under customs seals, with a single bond cut in one country covering the whole journey from sea to destination.
AFFA chairperson Emmanuel Mutale said the implication of the RCTG was that guarantors would be foreign-owned and controlled banks and insurance companies as sureties and this would deprive largely poor Zambians of business.
Mr Mutale said the clearing and forwarding industry was one area where Zambia had many people, youths in particular, employed in facilitating imports and exports.
He said ZAFFA was concerned that the RCTG would give customs business to countries with sea ports and render Zambians jobless.
Mr Mutale was speaking in an interview in Lusaka.
“Our concern from the inception as ZAFFA has been that RCTG will give customs business to countries with sea ports and render our people jobless. ZAFFA studied the system and we are of the view that it will not be compatible to our situation,” he said.
Mr Mutale said the RCTG would affect the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth because multinational customs brokers with head offices domiciled overseas and banking facilities abroad with branches everywhere would have an upper hand depriving poor Zambian companies and their employees of financial resources.
He said the association’s mandate was to ensure that Zambian clearing and forwarding agents were protected and that transporters were not mere spectators.
Mr Mutale, however, applauded the Government and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) on the pronouncements that it would work together to see how clearing and forwarding companies could be facilitated to participate more robustly in regional trade.
Mr Mutale said it was imperative that Zambia controlled exports and imports, and that transits should as well be controlled in Zambia.